


A Line Continues

by Esyla



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: AKielos is basically Greece, Canon Compliant, Combined Nations, Damen is a proud papa, Kid Fic, Laurent as a father, M/M, Married Life, Vere is basically france, at least in the language I have the children speak, beautiful babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-02 17:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6576133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esyla/pseuds/Esyla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“The Empress sends her wishes for your happy and long union.” The Ambassador waves forward a box, “And a gift that your lines might continue this happy union of nations.”</p><p>Damen raises confused eyebrows at Laurent in the throne beside him.</p><p>“We send our heartfelt thanks,” Laurent says calmly. “We shall have to find a way to repay such a generous gift.” </p><p>~~~~<br/>Laurent and Damen have babies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I saw this fanart of Laurent with a dark haired baby on his back in an ancient baby bjorn and my brain was just like "YYYYAAAASSSSSS". The naming joke is from another fanart. I need to find them each and give them proper credit but I cannot atm.
> 
> Not beta'd. I am dyslexic so some of the tenses might jump around because I can't spot it.

“The Empress sends her wishes for your happy and long union.” The Ambassador waves forward a box, “And a gift that your lines might continue this happy union of nations.”

Damen raises confused eyebrows at Laurent on the throne beside him.

“We send our heartfelt thanks,” Laurent says calmly. “We shall have to find a way to repay such a generous gift.”

* * *

 

The tools in the box are strange to Damen. A kind of thin funnel with a top made of lambs skin, a series of small porcelain cups, and what can only be described as a stopper for a bottle but with no bottle contained in the box. The book that had been in the box Laurent is currently reading by the fire with a curious expression on his face.

“I don’t understand.” Damen admitted finally after trying to put the stopper in all of the cups but to no avail.

“The Empress has given us the tools with which to have children.” Laurent says simply, not taking his eyes from the page.

“But…” Damen looks at the tools and then down at himself and then at Laurent. His husband huffs tiredly

“The way of the Clans is that the women do not take husbands and instead mate with the strongest male available, as you might recall.” Laurent’s small smile makes Damen blush at the memory of a night spent near a fire and the laughter in the tent afterwards.

“Yes, I do clearly remember that part. I am also not so horrible a king to not know this about our allies.” Damen would like to dispense with the teasing and continue to the real evening activity for which Laurent has delayed to read.

“In some alliances the men are not asked to couple with a woman because she has no wish for this act. Instead he donates his seed and she uses the tools provided to get with child.”

Damen doesn’t have a response to that, his mind running circles until Laurent takes pity on him and takes him to bed.

* * *

 

Damen dreams a sweet dream. A boy with his dark curls tucked into a soft bed. Opening small child eyes to reveal blue irises so alike Laurent’s his heart leaps. A baby girl with hair like silk on his knee. Her pale skin and dark eyes a perfect combination. Soft baby skin between his and Laurent’s in bed. Damen’s chest aches when he wakes.

Laurent is awake and watching him with a knowing smile.

“I think I wouldn’t mind continuing my line.” His husband tells him with a soft voice. Damen kisses him hungrily.

* * *

 

Damen has distant cousins on his mother’s side. He has never met them, barely even knew of their existence they were so far removed from any kind of power or inheritance.

“There are four daughters.” Laurent explains. “We only need one who is willing. The family will receive lands and power in exchange. Vere can provide a dowry of notable size for whichever of the girls is willing, that she might continue in a normal life.”

This is the better choice than his side. His father’s line has many cousins but all are power hungry and seek acclaim in battle.

“Your mother’s line can be traced to the first king. It will be a better claim. The people will find it easier.”

The girls are shocked to say the least, their parents beyond honored and incapable of fully showing their devotion to their kings. The girls do not look so much like Damen as he thought they might. Their skin is paler and two are rather short in stature.

Except for the second daughter. She is of a size as Damen and nearly his coloring, more extraordinary of a similar temperament.

“I have no desire for a husband.” She tells her King coolly while looking him in the face.

“Megaras is the champion in the spear throw in our village. She has bested even the Kyros son.” Her father explains.

“Her.” Laurent agrees and the contract is signed by all, happily.

* * *

 

“I have a cousin on my mother’s side who is to come stay with us for several months.” Laurent tells Damen weeks later.

“You wish to see my child with your coloring?” Damen teases while tugging his husband off his horse.

“It’s prudent to have more than one heir.” Laurent says calmly in the public of the stables.

Later in the privacy of their room his answer is more personal.

“The way you spoke of them in your dream, I want my little girl with her hair like silk to sit with your boy and his curls.” Laurent admits joyously in the privacy of their sheets.

“I think you are mistaken sweetheart.” Damen brushes away golden strands with his fingertips. “The boy was yours and the girl mine.”

Laurent laughs and then gets back to the task of riding them both to their pleasure.

* * *

 

The cousin is a lovely woman who looks strikingly akin to Laurent.

“We are first cousins.” Laurent tells him when Damen remarks on the closeness of their features and coloring.

“I am happy that my cousin the King will grant me my heart’s desire.” Emile speaks with a thick Vere accent on her words.

“Which is?”

“To study the stars and never be forced to take a husband.” Her smile is as coy and knowing as Laurent’s and Damen instantly approves.

* * *

 

The Kryos are pleased. They want heirs. Two heirs is beyond excellent. Two Kings and two lines of Queens to be combined is a fine match. A few mention the oddity of the circumstances but the Ambassador speaks of the Empress’ warriors who will often seek similar arrangements. The Kryos all know of the skill of these warrior women. They are mollified. They almost forget that they no longer have slaves with the joy of a coming heir.

The council is harder. They argue for weeks. Laurent and Damen travel to Vere until the council can be brought to heel.

“Which child shall be our heir?”

“Both.”

“Are we to accept a child with half its parentage of Akielos.”

“Yes. You have a King with only Akielos blood.”

In the end the sign the documents agreeing to acknowledge both children as heir as long as the male child born first will be considered the first heir.

* * *

 

“We are not naming our son Lamen.” Damen whispers. He has learned his lesson earlier when the newborn boy had cried for hours after Damen raised his voice above a whisper.

“Why not?” Laurent’s face is an impression of stone but Damen can see the small tells that speak of amusement.

“Because I already had the blanket embroidered with Auguste.” Damen admits softly to the tiny buddle in his arms.

Laurent’s tears are loud enough that the babe wakes, the wet nurse is very confused when told she isn’t needed they simply were too loud. Laurent holds his son closely the rest of the night murmuring into his dark curls.

* * *

 

“Exalted it is not proper to be in the birthing room.” The ladies keep trying to get him to leave the room as the labor continues.

“I intend to be here to see my daughter born.” Damen cannot be moved. Laurent is outside with Auguste and the wet nurse, keeping the waiting Kyros entertained with Auguste warm smile.

“Exalted the midwife assures us the babe shall be male, it sat so low in the waist.”

Damen is the first to hold his daughter, even before the ladies can attend to the babe. She is bald and has a complexion like that of her birth mother, pale cream.

* * *

 

“Charlette.”

“What, no.”

“It’s my turn husband.”

“But…”

“We can call her Lettie privately if that pleases you more, but I already had Charls make a special embroidered patter for her months ago.”

Damen realizes he has been paid back.

“I suppose I can tolerate Lettie.” He surrenders willingly because it is safer than fighting.

* * *

 

Both Auguste and Charlette have their own rooms; rooms at each of the three Palaces, the third being Marlas.

Auguste’s rooms are decorated in gold lions leaping over silver stars. There are wooden soldiers and a rocking horse in each. There are pallets for the wet nurse or an attendant to remain near the crib at all times.

Charlette’s rooms are blue skies with red and gold flowers. There are an array of silver brushes and combs to be used the moment she begins to grow hair. There are also wooden soldiers and rocking horses because Damen had insisted both his children have them.

Neither child has ever spent more than a small nap in their own beds. Damen had thought Laurent would argue against sleeping with the babies but he found that his husband was more admant than he had been.

“They will sleep easier if they know we are with them.”

It’s true that Auguste sleeps best sprawled on Damen’s chest and Lettie curls up pressing her ear to Laurent’s heart at night.

Damen doesn’t even mind the lack of sex, mostly. His heart is so full he can barely breathe.

* * *

 

Damen is in the middle of listening to the grievences in a minor land dispute when he hears the cries coming closer.

“Exalted. Please you must allow me to carry the babe.”

“Exalted, surely you would like to change before rejoining the audience chamber.”

Laurent comes down the hall looking much the same as he always does, laced up from neck to tip-toe. Only he now has a great swatch of cloth tied around his chest so that Auguste is strapped to his back. Also there is a stain on his shoulder showing where the baby had clearly burped up his lunch.

The attendants drop away once Laurent is close to the dais and give up completely when he sits down and waves for the minor lords to resume their suits.

Damen looks down at Lettie who is gazing at him with too keen eyes for an infant. She blinks at him slowly like a cat as if to say she finds not fault in her Pere.

“If the nurse can carry him this way so can I.” Laurent tells Damen with stone eyes. He kisses the small frown from Laurent’s face.

* * *

 

“We have asked you here today so each of you can choose which of the children you each would prefer to guard.” Damen tells Jord and Nikandros.

Both men look lost and scared for a moment before Laurent hits Damen on the back of the head.

“I wasn’t serious.” Laurent tells him in a venomous whisper.

“I would be honored to personal guard to the prince or princess, Majesties.” Jord intones over Laurent’s soft voice, saving Damen from a further tongue lashing.

“Exaltes, I must decline.” Nikandros gets out before anyone can say anything further.

“May I ask why?” Laurent’s voice is ice.

“I have already done one life time of guarding and advising a prince. I have done my duty. I am too tired to begin anew.”

“That’s fair.” Laurent nods. “I bet Damen was very difficult as a child.”

Damen doesn’t pout. Laurent is exaggerating.

“Might I suggest Pallas, Exates?”

“Acceptable.”

In the end a joint force is devised for the prince and princess because they have not even reached their second birthdays and are not actively in need of much guarding with too attentive fathers.

* * *

 

Auguste is a large babe and a wider child. His shoulders give him a strong standing even if he is still very small. He is the happier of the two, with easy smiles and very few tantrums.

He speaks first, which is not a surprise because he is nearly six months older than his sister. His first word is ‘up’ with his arms upraised in demand at Laurent. The surprise is his fluency in both Veretian and Akielan. He can distinguish between the two languages by his second birthday and is extremely deft and perocious.

Auguste will switch language with those he knows are not fluent as if to test if they are listening to him. His curls soften to waves around his third birthday and Laurent frowns slightly at their loss. His eyes shift from vibrant blue to a piercing blue green in his fourth year.

The Prince loves books and sitting with his Pateras and Pere in audience or in council. He is the climber of the two children, finding ways to scale walls and trees alike. Auguste is the plotter of the two, if ever there is mischief it can almost always be traced back to wide innocent eyes.

* * *

 

Halvik shakes her head at Laurent.

“The serpent could breed a warrior son after all.”

Auguste stabs his food violently with a knife until it splatters on his sister.

* * *

 

“You are not supposed to have a favorite.” Laurent chastises Damen in bed.

“But I do.” Damen admits kissing Laurent’s neck softly. “You.”

“You let him get away with murder.” Laurent’s voice is solid and clipped, he is clearly fighting to stay angry in the face of Damen’s seduction.

“Our son is has too much of you in him for me to stay angry at him.” Damen slides slick fingers into Laurent. “Right now you need some more of me inside of you.”

“That is not very seductive, lover.”

* * *

 

Charlette begins her life small and bald. The first is solved in the span of two years. She shoots up like a vine, passing her brother in height quickly. In her third year she finally grows soft, fine, gold hair. It sticks up in all directions and she appears much akin to a sunflower in color and appearance.

She is a temperamental baby and toddler. She cries at the slightest hurt or delay in her wants. She throws tantrums constantly and scrunches up her nose in distaste at new people trying to touch her.

Charlette’s first word is an emphatic “NO” spoken to a nurse who had tried to put her in a Veretian dress. She wears the word out quickly with the court and soon learns “Dismissed” from Laurent.

The Princess loves being outside. She has to ride on a horse when they travel because she will cry in the carriage. She steals all the toy soldiers from her brother’s room and stages massive wars spanning her room and the halls surrounding. She can swim and ride before she can stand fully on her own.

* * *

 

“How about instead of spending three days trying to convince the council to sign the new laws, we lock them in a room with Lettie until they agree to sign whatever we put in front of them. It would take three hours at the most.”

“We are going to need some of them to like us later.”

“Remove the sharp objects, and then lock the council in the room with Lettie.”

“Let’s consider less dire tactics first before resort to the Lettie option.”

* * *

 

“Stop laughing.” Damen groans. “She is your daughter too.”

“Not today, that’s all you.” Laurent grins giddily.

“The Patras Princes are four and two years older than her. Patras could consider this a breach of courtesy.” Damen sighs remembering the blood bath he had been presented with in the nursery today. “Shouldn’t you be more concerned about how we are going to make it up to their king?”

“Our little Lettie took on three older boys and won. Patras can’t take offense, if the Princess, at five, is capable of such destruction imagine what they must believe our armies can do.”

Damen gives up and lays down face first on the bed.

“Did she really rip the under garments off one of them while he was still fully clothed?” Laurent asks giggling.

“From the crown prince, yes.”

Laurent laughs until he can barely breathe.

* * *

 

Auguste is up a tree.

“Emile and Megaras have sent out invitations of their wedding, finally.” Laurent tells him from the chair across the table.

Lettie is trying to fashion a sling shot out of her toys, her brows knitted in concentration.

“Pallas says that Lettie has asked to learn archery from Lazar. I think we should let him train her. Or at least show her the basics, I would like to sleep some time this year and saying no is a sure way to make sure I don’t.”

Damen nods in agreement.

Lettie has abandoned the slingshot and is not throwing rocks at her brother who is singing a rather naughty drinking song to taunt her.

“Oh and the Empress of Vask wishes us to consider a proposal of marriage between her son and whichever of our children takes a shine to him.” Damen turns back to his husband in mild shock.

“Is she serious?”

“Of course, it’s the main reason she sent us the tools. She wants an alliance with our new nation and she had a newly born son at the time we married.”

“You knew?”

“I am thinking that our war hungry lioness will growl the pants off the Vask envoy.” Laurent smiles out at the children who are now chasing each other around the tree. He shrugs, “Then again not everyone has the preference for golden hair that you do.”

Damen kicks him under the table.

 


	2. tumblr continuation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this on tumblr and no one cared so I am putting it here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THEWORSTWORRY commented on A LINE CONTINUES on AO3
> 
> Oh god that’s just what I needed. I think the thought of Damen and Laurent growing older together and finding all this peace with each other is so beautiful. Older Damen/Laurent is what I need more of in my life. 
> 
> I live for this as well

 

Laurent is gone camping for two months with Lettie. It’s her birthday present, she had specifically asked to go train with three different regiments for her twelfth birthday.  

Augusie is heartbroken, missing his little sister. Damen is not projecting.

“Pateras your pinning is ruining my book.” Auguste points out when Damen tries to ask his son if he misses his sister and Pere.

Laurent comes back with a sunburnt daughter cut who off all her gold hair in order to ‘get it out of my face when I use a bow.’

And a beard. Laurent has a beard.

It’s red.

* * *

“What is that?” Damen asks seconds after Laurent detaches his lips from Damen’s.

“The men bet me I could not grow one.” Laurent shrugs as if he is not wearing a red woolly brush on his face. 

“But it’s so red.” Damen states still not able to get his head around it.

“I shall have my gold coin now, Lazar.” Lettie says behind Laurent holding out a haughty hand.

“Yes Princess.” The guard rolls his eyes. Princess Charlette looks entirely too smug.

“Don’t you like it Husband?” Laurent asks with sparkling eyes. Damen suddenly realizes he is in trouble. “Now we match.”

* * *

 

“Kindly get out of my house Damen.” Nikandros says calmly walking into the solar and barely glancing at his King.

“It’s red.” Damen repeats in a trance. Nikandros sighs as if the gods himself are sitting on his shoulders.

“Just give him whatever it is he wants and he will shave it, I’m sure.”

“Laurent wants me to shave mine.” Damen frowns stroking his beard. He had started growing it on Auguste’s thirteenth birthday as a pact with his son not to shave. The point had been that Auguste didn’t want to learn to shave so Damen had backed him up. 

Damen was now rather fond of his beard, streaks of grey and all. He thought he looked like the statues of the old kings with it. Laurent had stated that he was not fond of the beard because it scratched him when Damen…. preformed particular husbandly duties. 

“If you are going to be this sad about try asking your children for assistance.”

* * *

 

“What do I get in return?” Auguste asks barely looking up from his studies. 

“What do you want?” Damen inquires casually. Dealing with Auguste is like dealing with a blunter version of Laurent.

“I shall consult my lists and get back to you after supper.” And then Damen, King of a land that once spanned two kingdoms, is dismissed by his thirteen year old son.

* * *

 

“Pere said he would get me a stallion if I shaved your face in your sleep.” Lettie notches another arrow and aims for the target once more.

“At least you are honest about it.” Damen sighs.

“I am going to win the games next week and use my winnings to pay Jord to hold you down while I do it.” Lettie has the cool tone of one who has already won a game. 

Damen leaves the training ring without responding. Clearly he is going to have to negotiate this directly.

* * *

 

“Please shave it.” 

“Not until you shave yours.”

“I will cut it down.” Damen counters. “Close cropped, barely more than stubble.”

“And?” Laurent waits.

“You can put that clause into trade law you want so badly.” Damen surrenders.

Laurent smiles brightly and pulls a straight razor from his jacket.

“Would you like to do the honors?”

Turns out shaving can be erotic. It might just be a Laurent thing. But Damen lets ends up getting shaved as well with very little argument.

* * *

 

“Told you Pere would win.” Augusie taunts at supper. “The stallion is mine.”

“Over your dead body!” Lettie growls and jumps over the table to attack her brother, who knowing her temper has already fled the room. 

Cries of “Princess!” and “Highnesses!” can be heard coming up and down the corridors.

Laurent laughs brightly when later they find the crown prince on top of a bookshelf calmly reading where his sister can’t reach him. 

**Author's Note:**

> So in like the 40s or something they basically had early in vitro where a cap was placed on the cervix after some sperm was, what I assume, shot up the vagina with a turkey baster. Think like a diaphragm but in reverse. If ancient rome can have contraceptives and running water than I am gonna say someone can come up with a cervical cap in a matriarchal society.
> 
> These books ruined me. [come see me on tumblr for me creating all kinds of incorrect Captive Prince quotes and Headcannons about Auguste, Charlette, Laurent and Damen. ](http://alyseofwonderland.tumblr.com/)
> 
> I have so many headcannons about this universe but i couldn't find a good way to work them all in. BUT I can give you all of them on tumblr!


End file.
